The present invention relates to an apparatus/method capable of real-time digital recording of a video picture and the like, and a digital information medium (real-time digital video recording/playback system) used in the apparatus/method.
More particularly, the present invention relates to an apparatus/method which assures a special information storage area on a recordable/reproducible DVD disc (DVD-RAM disc or the like), and uses information stored in that area as needed upon playback, erasure, or the like of a recorded video program.
Nowadays, DVD video specification that uses MPEG2 (Moving Picture Expert Group 2) in video (moving picture) digital recording/playback, and AC-3 (Digital Audio Compression or Audio Coding 3) in audio digital recording/playback has been settled, and various playback apparatuses (DVD video players) which use that specification are commercially available.
The DVD video specification supports MPEG2 as a moving picture compression scheme, and AC-3 audio and MPEG audio in addition to linear PCM as an audio recording scheme. Also, the DVD video specification supports sub-picture data for superimposed dialogs, navigation data for playback control such as fastforwarding, rewinding, data search, and the like, and ISO9660 and UDF bridge format for computers.
Furthermore, recordable DVD discs (recordable/reproducible DVD-RAM/DVD-RW or write-once DVD-R) have been developed, and an environment that allows the development of digital video information recording/playback apparatuses (alternatives to a conventional video cassette tape recorder) using recordable DVD discs is in order.
Under such circumstances, the DVD-RTR (DVD real-time recording) specification for digitally recording a video picture or the like in real time and playing it back has been proposed, and is settled as a standard.
However, the number and kinds of program contents recorded tends to increase with increasing recording size of a disc, and it becomes harder for the user to grasp the recorded contents. For this reason, a problem is posed in terms of management of recorded discs.